Sometimes, work can make things a lot worse

What I am writing will seem like so much common sense you will wonder why you never considered it. Working for a bad boss can make you sick. On my Facebook page, I recently sad that consumers should never tell their bosses about their mental health status. The reason is that I have seen too many ways in which it can backfire. I see it as one more thing that can be used against you when they decide for whatever reason that you have done something wrong.

I have worked for a lot of terrible bosses. This includes black and white people. One company I worked with in Waukesha was filled with racists who wanted nothing to do with African-Americans. These were people who did everything possible to change the rules to be able show you weren’t living up to their standards. People who talked about not wanting to have you around.

I worked for the of Milwaukee which had a bunch of racist white librarians. Who knows, some of them may still be there. They made it clear they didn’t want me around and ignored or minimized anything positive I had accomplished. In the Waukesha and Milwaukee jobs, I felt miserable. What makes a miserable situation even worse is when the company finally puts the knife in your back because they will twist the terms of your firing to make it seem as though you were the worst employee they ever had. After firing you, they may put you on the work schedule without your knowledge and then claim that because you did not come in, you were a no call, no show.

A former employer did that to me in a shabby attempt to deny me unemployment. Unemployment can be a lifeline for people while they seek out new jobs but increasingly companies claim that their former employees had somehow broken the work rules. One company used two shills to claim I had sworn at work, which was so unprofessional I needed to be terminated. At another agency, two seemingly sweet women business owners fired me for not changing the water bottle and then made up a ridiculous story. Of course, I was awarded my benefits.

I heard of a case in which someone was given an unsigned disciplinary note only to learn from unemployment that the company accused the employee of insubordination that had nothing to do with what the person had been told. All of this to be able to fuck the former employee out of unemployment.

When you are mistreated, and told people can’t stand you, it hurts your self-esteem. It makes you wonder what you were doing there. It gnaws away at you. When you worry whether unemployment benefits will be there for you, it creates anxiety. It can worsen your mental health.

Be especially wary about the honeymoon period during which you seem to be praised to the sky. No one is really that good but also no one deserves to be walked on or lied to regarding their performance. It’s demeaning and anyone who would act that way should be unemployed to be able to get a taste of their own medicine. Consumers, beware.